Friday, March 28, 2014

Friday Night

The quake rolled
through a little after 9 PM and was immediately followed by a second:5.1 and then, 3.4 on the Richter scale.I went to my computer to look up the
details.Epicenter was in the town of
Brea, about 25 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

In my apartment it
felt like water swishing around a glass in a circular motion.Not a sharp jolt; just a swaying dizzying sensation
that, due to the second quake, felt like it went on for several minutes.The dining room chandelier swirled
overhead.A few pops and creaks in the
hardwood floors.

I walked outside into
the still and quiet night.No sirens, no
commotion.People moved down the street
from their parked cars to the bar on the corner, laughing, teasing, voices
filled with story.I don’t think any of
them were aware of the shifting of the earth in the night.

Back inside, I learned
that the depth was only a mile, meaning that the shaking was felt over a larger
area, and was particularly strong at the epicenter.There was damage, unlike the last quake over
a week ago.And due to the sequence—a minor
3.6 shaker a little after 8 followed by the 5.1 and 3.4, scientists at Caltech
were more than a little more adamant that a larger quake may follow in the next
few hours, days, or even weeks.How
comforting!

Across the southland,
people reported smashed dishes, fallen shelves, broken knick knacks.Widely scattered power outages and broken
water mains.Probably more than a few
jangled nerves.

It has not been an
easy week.(Is any week easy?)Today, my wife’s school was on lockdown for
the second time this month.The first
was due to possible gang retaliation at a funeral in the parish church.The latest was the result of a parolee with a
gun running from the end of a police chase.There were several sightings of him in the side streets and alleys
around the school, and the requisite army of LAPD officers swarmed the area.Lots of yellow police tape and tense moments
until the all-clear came through and the kids could go home and start their
weekend.

In all of this
normalcy—that’s what it is:normal—I love
coming home on Friday nights.The
fatigue actually feels good, like I’ve earned my rest.We will spend the weekend reading, writing
and catching up on household chores.We
will regroup and prepare for the challenges of next week.Life is circular, always shifting and moving
and reconfiguring itself, and we must roll with the change, the impermanence.

A police helicopter roars
overhead flying northbound to some emergency.Somewhere down the block a dog whines and barks once and then falls
silent.The crescent moon is
disappearing, and the air outside is spring moist and damp, and smells of the
ocean.

It is Friday night in
Los Angeles, business as usual.To the earth,
the sky and my fellow inhabitants of this city of angels, rest easy, and take
care.